This community opinion was contributed by Darlene Boyd, spouse of John Freeman, candidate for Board of Supervisors District 2. The opinions expressed do not necessarily represent BenitoLink or other affiliated contributors. BenitoLink invites all community members to share their ideas and opinions. By registering as a BenitoLink user in the top right corner of our home page and agreeing to follow our Terms of Use, you can write counter opinions or share your insights on current issues. Lea este articulo en español aquí.
San Benito County is and shall remain a rural land conservation haven. The hype about its over population is nothing but propaganda and misinformation for the under educated of this county who seem to fear a mass over development program.
The first reason is the two cities in the county occupy about 8+ square miles of land, which is less than 1% of the total 1,388.7 square miles. Add to this the county is surrounded by mountain ranges to the Southeast, West and East, with the cities being enveloped by largely protected agricultural lands. We can also factor in land protected by 3 federally managed areas, (Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail, Pinnacles National Park and Clear Creek Management Area), 3 state parks, (Fremont Peak State Park, San Juan Bautista Historical Park, and Hollister Hills State Recreational Vehicle Park, which includes Mudstone Ranch and Hudner Ranch), 3 county parks (Veterans Memorial Park, San Benito County Historical Park and Bolado Park). We can add 21 or more community-maintained parks.
Together both cities have done a great job of minimizing sprawl and keeping it in check. There have been only two bubbles of recent rapid development, including one in the 1990’s and then the last few years.
The property tax rate for San Benito County ranks low, either 56th or tied for the bottom with another county, as clarified by Supervisor Curro. Part of this is due to that the San Benito Agricultural Land Trust “has protected 7,300 acres in conservation easement partnerships and fee title acquisitions.” (https://www.sanbenitolandtrust.org), which entitles its properties to receive property tax relief on the lands under contract. Significantly, half of the San Benito agricultural parcels are covered under the Williamson Act, according to the Tax Assessor, to incentivize farmers to keep their lands agricultural.
How are we going to address county needs with our current limited and unsustainable county revenue streams?
The real issue here is balancing conservation efforts to address the revenue needs of San Benito County, to pay for costs such as roads, law, fire and emergency enforcement, county courts, behavioral health, climate change mitigation, integrated waste management, elections and recorder’s office, county administration and indigent and migrant housing issues, etc. In fact, 33% of our current county population is on Medical.
Fortunately, some supervisors and current supervisorial candidates are highly motivated to feel morally obligated to address these historical funding disparities. There is considerable pressure upon our county to attract and approve commercial/industrial developments. All of this puts a huge impact upon San Benito County’s future resilience and underrepresented communities. So, choose your supervisors carefully.